2023
Tito L. H. Grillo
Assistant Professor (2022-present)
University of Alberta—Alberta School of Business Contact:[email protected]
EDUCATION
University of Texas at Austin, Marketing PhD (2022)
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Marketing DBA (2018) University of Texas at Austin, Fulbright Visiting Student (2017)
Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Marketing MS (2014)
RESEARCH INTEREST Theoretical topics:
Adaptive Behavior;
Memory and Learning;
Risk-Taking;
Attitudes and Persuasion.
Practical topics (aka contexts where I apply theories):
Financial Decisions;
Information Consumption;
Marketing Communication.
I tend to see consumer behavior as the interplay between things consumers learned while growing up, things that (as humans) consumers are hardwired to do, and the stimuli they find while navigating our modern world. In general, behavioral tendencies are very functional—we systematically adopt behaviors that have been rewarded while we were growing up, and our most fundamental natural tendencies tend to exist because they helped our ancestors survive. The twist is that many of the modern world stimuli (e.g., money, technology) are not part of consumers’
early life experiences, and certainly were not part of the lives of our ancestors. My research tries to understand what happens when old learned and “programmed” tendencies meet these new stimuli.
PUBLICATIONS
Grillo, Tito L. H. & Ward, Adrian F. (2022). How Childhood Adversity Shapes
Susceptibility to COVID-19 Scams. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 7(1), 54-62
Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/711833
Fisher, Matthew; Smiley, Adam; & Tito L. H. Grillo (2021). Information without Knowledge: The Effects of Internet Search on Learning. Memory, 30(4), 375-387 Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2021.1882501
2023
Grillo, Tito L. H. & Pizzutti, Cristiane (2021). Recognizing and Trusting Persuasion Agents:
Attitudes Bias Trustworthiness Judgments, but not Persuasion Detection. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 47(5), 796-809
Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167220946197
Selected Media Coverage: “Trust Me, I'm an Expert.” Psychology Today. Link:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/empathy/202009/trust-me-im-expert
MANUSCRIPTS PIPELINE
Grillo, Tito L. H.; Henderson, Ty; & Ward, Adrian F. Habituation to threats in sustained periods of crisis: Lessons from risk perceptions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In the review process. Nature Human Behavior.
Grillo, Tito L. H.; Henderson, Ty; & Ward, Adrian F. Survival and Surplus Mindsets: A Resource Management Perspective on Early Life Socioeconomic Conditions and Lifelong Risk Preferences. In the review process. Personality and Social Psychology Review. Latest version: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4190692
Ward, Adrian F.; Grillo, Tito L. H.; & Fernbach, Phillip. Confidence without Competence:
Online Financial Search and Consumer Financial Decision-Making. In preparation for submission.
Latest version: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4131784
Selected Media Coverage: “The internet is making you a worse investor.” MarketWatch.
Link: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-internet-is-making-you-a-worse-investor- 11665159851
Grillo, Tito L. H.; Henderson, Ty; & Ward, Adrian F. Short-Lived Responses to Long- Lasting Threats: Privileged Upbringings Predict More Risk-Taking in Times of Crises, Except when Crises Feel Novel. Data collection complete. Manuscript in preparation for Journal of Consumer Research.
Grillo, Tito L. H. and Moore, Sarah. Untitled paper about how early life SES moderates effects of self-construal manipulations. Data collection complete. Manuscript in preparation for Journal of Consumer Research.
Yang, Shuhan and Grillo, Tito L. H. and Moore, Sarah. Life Stress Shapes Aesthetic Preferences: The Case of Minimalist Design. Data collection complete. Manuscript in preparation for Journal of Consumer Research.
Grillo, Tito L. H.; Pizzutti, Cristiane; & Ward, Adrian F. Googled-Induced Confidence in Decision Skills and its Effect on Consumption Experiences. Recently rejected and I don’t know what to do with it =/.
2023
RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS
Grillo, Tito L. H. and Adrian F. Ward (2022). Survival and Surplus Mindsets: How Early Life Socioeconomic Conditions Shape Risky Behaviors During COVID-19. Society for Consumer Psychology, Virtual Conference. *
Grillo, Tito L. H., Pizzutti, Cristiane, and Adrian F. Ward (2020). The Effect of Google- Induced Confidence on Consumption Experiences. Paper presented at the winter conference of the Association for Consumer Research, Virtual Conference.*
Grillo, Tito L. H., Pizzutti, Cristiane, and Adrian F. Ward (2020). Googled-Induced Confidence in Decision Skills Changes Experiences. Paper presented at the winter conference of the Society for Consumer Psychology, Huntington Beach, LA, USA.*
Ward, Adrian F., Grillo, Tito L. H., and Phillip Fernbach (2019). From Novice to Know-it- All: Online Financial Search and Financial (Over)Confidence. Paper presented at the Boulder Summer Conference on Consumer Financial Decision Making, Boulder, CO, USA.
Ward, Adrian F., Grillo, Tito L. H., and Phillip Fernbach (2018). From Novice to Know-it- All: How Google-Based Financial Learning Affects Financial Confidence and Decisions.
Paper presented at the conference of the Association for Consumer Research, Dallas, TX, USA.*
Grillo, Tito L. H. and Adrian F. Ward (2018). Google-Induced Confidence Improves Experiences. Paper presented at the annual conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Atlanta, GA, USA.*
*presenter
CONFERENCE SESSIONS ORGANIZED/CHAIRED
Cognitive Influences on Consumption Experiences (with Adrian F. Ward). Session held at the conference of the Association of Consumer Research, 2020.
Financial Decisions in the Information Age (with Adrian F. Ward). Session held at the conference of the Association of Consumer Research, 2018.
DISCUSSANT
Grillo, Tito L. H., Discussant of “’It’s Cute, but no that Useful’: Cute Product Design Influences Instrumentality Perceptions, Preference, and Choice” by Lei Jia (The Ohio State University), presented at the Haring Symposium at Indiana University Bloomington (2019).
2023
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
University College Continuing Fellowship (2020-2022);
McCombs School of Business Fellowship (2018-2021);
McCombs School of Business Research Scholarship (2017-2021);
The Eugene & Dora Bonham Memorial Fund Scholarship (2018-2019);
McCombs School of Business Recruitment Fellowship (2017-2019);
Fulbright & CAPES Research Grant (2016-2017);
CAPES Fellowship (Brazil) (2014-2016);
National Council for Scientific and Technological Development Grant (Brazil), Research grant with Cristiane Pizzutti dos Santos (2014);
National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Brazil), DTI B fellowship, (2012).
TEACHING
2023, Winter Semester: Marketing Analytics (undergraduate level), University of Alberta
Course evaluation medians: 4.8 (Session 1) and 4.7 (Session 2).
Selected comments from students:
Tito’s teaching style and coursework blew my expectations out of the water. He made a mostly boring subject very engaging and enjoyable. He always was fair and treated his students with upmost respect. For a newer professor, he is one of the best I had during my years at UofA.
Tito makes learning marketing analytics very exciting. He is obviously passionate about the subject and cares about students and is willing to go above and beyond to help them.
Tito is the GOAT! The lectures are really interesting and formatted well. One of my favourite classes to date!
The quality of this course was fantastic! Tito is a great professor and made the class interesting and was very knowledgeable!
Speak a little slower hahah
OTHER ACTIVITIES AND EXPERIENCES
Researcher/consultant, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (2012-2014).
Worked as a researcher and consultant for the university’s Center for Innovation
Management. My main role was to conduct research with start-ups and provide support to their innovation processes.
Arts exhibition assistant producer, 8th Mercosul Biennial (2011-2012). Yes! For a while I was involved in putting together one of South America’s largest visual arts events! My job was basically to make the curators’ and artists’ visions come true inside the museum while staying within budget (very hard!) and making sure we didn’t destroy the museum in the process (very important!).
